The hype was astronomical, and the expectations were a little outrageous. And in the end, Saturday’s UFC 73 “Stacked” event delivered the stars, but it didn’t exactly deliver the entertainment.

The pay-per-view event, which took place at ARCO Arena in Sacramento, Calif., had been billed as one of the most talent-rich fight cards in the organization’s 14-year history. Two title fights, the debut of a former PRIDE champion, alumni from The Ultimate Fighter, and of course, the conclusion of Rashad Evans and Tito Ortiz’s (manufactured) rivalry. UFC 73 was supposed to have it all.

Unfortunately, as we’ve learned time and time again, MMA events are ultimately judged on the quality of the fights — and not necessarily the fighters who make them happen.

That’s not to say UFC 73 was a flop, though.

It just lacked any real surprises.

In the night’s main event, UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva defended his title and delivered Nate Marquardt the first blemish of his otherwise stellar UFC career. And Silva needed just one of the scheduled five rounds to pull off the victory.

The premise was simple: Silva would need to keep it standing, and Marquardt would need to force the fight to the ground. However, when Marquardt ducked under a kick and forced the champ to the canvas, it was Silva who inflicted much of the damage from the bottom.

With 90 seconds remaining in the first round, the fighters returned to their feet, and Silva connected on a stiff right punch that sent Marquardt into the fence and eventually to the canvas. Silva followed with an onslaught of punches, and when Marquardt covered up, referee John McCarthy halted the fight and awarded Silva a TKO victory at 4:50 of the first round.

In his heavily hyped fight with The Ultimate Fighter 2 winner Rashad Evans, Tito Ortiz‘s costly foul forced a rare — and anti-climatic — unanimous draw in their main-card bout. Ortiz had won the first two rounds, but in the second, he failed to heed repeated warnings not to grab the fence and was penalized a point. With Evans, a former Michigan State University wrestler, continually looking for the takedown, Ortiz repeatedly grasped the fence to keep his balance.

The point deduction proved costly, and with that second-round foul, all three judges had the rounds scored 10-9, 9-9 and 9-10. The 28-28 draw halted any plans that Evans or Ortiz had to move up in the 205-pound division rankings, and a rematch of the rivals now appears inevitable.

In the evening’s other title fight, a quick and relentless Sean Sherk defended his lightweight belt while delivering top contender Hermes Franca 25 minutes of pure frustration.

Franca’s typically wild, unorthodox and exciting fighting style was negated by Sherk’s wrestling skills, and Franca was given few opportunities to strike.

Despite catching the champion with flush knees to the face to start the second and fourth rounds, Franca just couldn’t kickstart anything offensively. He was smothered and controlled by Sherk and ultimately suffered the first loss of his past nine fights. The judges had it 50-45, 50-45, 49-46.

In earlier action, Heath Herring made a costly error in judgment, allowing former PRIDE heavyweight champion and UFC newcomer Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira time to recover from what should have been a fight-ending head kick.

Nogueira dominated the first round, but with his hands at his waist, he eventually ate a high kick that sent the submission specialist straight to the canvas. Herring initially pounced on his dazed opponent, but for inexplicable reasons, jumped to his feet and signaled for his opponent to do the same with nearly 30 seconds left in the round.

Herring again sent Nogueira to the canvas a few seconds later — and once again, stood up and waited for his opponent to do the same.

The round eventually ended, and after Herring opted not to engage early in the second, Nogueira had ample time to recover from the kick. From there, he cruised to an otherwise dominating unanimous-decision victory (29-28, 29-28, 29-28).

In the final main-card bout (one that closed out the night’s pay-per-view broadcast), Kenny Florian continued his remarkable improvement and pounded Alvin Robinson into defeat.

Using judo throws to get his opponent to the ground, Florian used the last one to work to full mount and unload brutal ground and pound that forced a referee’s stoppage at the same time Robinson verbally submitted at 4:30 of the first round.

Don’t be surprised to see Florian matched up with a top 155-pound contender in his next bout.

On the undercard, Frankie Edgar kicked off UFC 73 with a TKO victory over Mark Bocek. Edgar connected on a big right and followed it up with a series of follow-up shots, but Bocek momentarily survived.

However, in the final seconds of the round, Edgar’s onslaught forced Bocek to cover up, and Edgar was awarded a TKO victory.

Late replacement Jason Gilliam, filling in for an injured Drew Fickett, proved no match for veteran Chris Lytle. The Ultimate Fighter 4 welterweight runner-up and professional boxer connected on an early combination, kick to the body and an eventual fight-ending keylock and triangle choke for a submission win at 2:15 of the first round.

The Ultimate Fighter 2‘s Brazilian jiu-jitsu ace Jorge Gurgel won a somewhat controversial unanimous decision over fellow jiu-jitsu expert Diego Saraiva. In a back-and-forth battle that looked as though it could have gone either way, it was Gurgel who scored the unanimous-decision victory — with surprising 30-27 scores on all three judges’ cards.

The final undercard fight played host to the return of Stephan Bonnar, who finished serving his nine-month suspension for a failed drug test (anabolic steroid) at UFC 62. The Ultimate Fighter 1 light heavyweight runner-up made short work of The Ultimate Fighter 3‘s Mike Nickels.

Bonnar sank in the rear-naked choke and forced the tap at 2:14 of the first round.